Only A Game Of Chess
by E.Doesnothing
Summary: Regina was glad to see her son focusing on a checkered board rather than a fantastical book about a life no longer.


Dear Readers,

First of all, I am completely _horrible _at chess, I learned how to play from my laptop game for God's sake, so don't expect much pizazz.

This came to me in a dream, and because I read that Once Upon a Time could be compared to a game of chess.

Which made me start thinking, which piece could everyone represent? Especially Rumplestiltskin! He was hard!

Then he said to Emma, when she accused him of being too involved with Kathryn's disappearance:

"What? Do you think I'm working _diagonally_?"

DIAGONAL= BISHOP! Gotya!

* * *

"_White always mates…Always, without exception, it is so arranged. In no chess problem since the beginning of the world has black ever won. Did it not symbolize the eternal unvarying triumph of Good over Evil?"_ -George Orwell, _1984_

* * *

Regina was glad to see her son focusing on a checkered board rather than a fantastical book about a life no longer.

Henry was becoming more and more unresponsive to her ideas of simple bonding. Emma Swan was no doubt getting to him, Regina knew, and infiltrating the city as well. The mayor felt as if she was slowly losing grip of her own town; and after 28 years of having a taste of victory, there was no way she was going to let it go.

So the moment Henry offered to play a game of chess with her, Regina thought all her sacrifices to keep her family and her town in oblivious peace had not going to waste.

She wished they would have a type of awkward "catching up" conversation rather than have the metaphorical haze thicken between them as they set up the pieces.

"What side do you want to be?" She asked.

"White." He answered emotionlessly.

In all honesty, Regina knew she shouldn't be surprised by the response. "Because they go first?"

He clutched a piece of paper at his side that she hadn't noticed. "Because I _like it_ if white wins."

Regina tilted herself at an angle to see the paper. As if he already knew what her next move was, Henry pulled it behind his small body. He gave a tiny, yet coy and secretive smile. His white hands pulled out the sheet and procured little childish doodles with his writing. She was sure she recognized a few chess pieces and listed movements on it, as if he was planning for this game all along. There was another rush of relief Regina felt now that she was certain Henry's mind wasn't completely focused on the book.

"When was the last time we played chess?" He asked.

Did they ever play chess together? All she remembered that the game was a gift for a birthday; one that she quickly put away because he was too young to understand how to play. For a moment she wondered how he found it, and ended up concluding it might have been Miss Swan's idea to make Henry search within the crevices of his own home.

"It was a _long _time ago," she lied, "do you remember how to play?"

"I've brushed up a bit," he lied as well. With a slight gesture, he mentioned that the paper had all the moves each piece could make so he wouldn't have to memorize them. He awkwardly asked to be pardoned if he kept looking back and forth between the board and the paper.

The first move he made was to move his knight. Regina's strategy was to always take out the knights first; its pattern of movement was the best one to capture the queen. And by any means she was going to keep that piece safe if she was going to win this game.

Regina moved a pawn, to make room for a bishop to move.

_There were so many things she could be doing right now, getting on with important life matters__, _Regina suddenly thought, _she must hurry, but she could delay for a short game of chess._

Next Henry moved a pawn two spaces forward. He left the king nearly unprotected. The mayor looked at the pawn, and saw that her bishop could take that pawn out in the next two moves.

He didn't seem to know what was happening and just pulled his knight back in line.

Now given the chance, she destroyed his pawn. His eight pawns now became seven.

In a sudden swish he grabbed his paper. There were a few nods and pauses as he tried to figure out his next move. Henry made his bishop take the first pawn she moved.

_In the silence, she looked at the board and thought something familiar of it. The memory bothered her; it was only fleeting idea at the edges of her mind just teasing her._

They continued to play, and she made some notable sacrifices. Regina gave up her knight so she could take one of his rooks. She used a bishop to take his.

But in the progress of the game, Henry made very clever moves. Her other knight was gone, as well as a few pawns. So in turn, she took one of his knights. Eventually, his pawn found the end of the board.

"I want to promote it to a knight," he said as it was replaced.

Eventually both of the white knights trailed each other, while the black side mostly moved the queen or bishop.

And Henry's king and queen were always next to each other, whereas the dark king lay rather still. Regina had no use for a king who could do so little.

Almost all of Regina's other pieces were off the board. Those pieces were useless too. The only good one was the queen. The piece that embodied her and her goal.

She let her mind fly too much, Regina noticed with a start. She was blocked. How though? Henry had a bishop, two knights, and his queen intact while she had only her queen and bishop. Regina realized, she sacrificed too many pieces in vain for the small victories against the white side.

It didn't help that her king happened to have been brought to a corner a few moves ago.

Henry's white face grew a devilish grin, which, Regina was ashamed to say, she had not wanted to see.

Her mind had been focused on her one goal that she lost sight of the entire board. She could use her queen to take out a piece, but then she'd put it in a vulnerable spot that will certainly led to it being lost to the other side. But if she did not move, her defeat could not be delayed.

"What are you going to do?" Henry asked darkly. "You led yourself to your doom. So what are you going to do?"

She blinked once. Regina didn't know why she suddenly felt like crying.

It was a tense moment. Either sacrifice the queen now, and save the king for a few more moves before inevitable death, or forfeit the game so the queen will not die in defeat.

The pads of her fingers brushed the top of her queen. She knocked it over.

"It was going to die anyways," she tried to say indifferently.

Completing the necessary moves on his end, Henry won the game.

She felt awfully sick.

"The game had to end," He said, in the demeanor not for a young child, "It had to end. White always wins. Because good _will always _win."


End file.
